Living in the time of the Trump Administration sometimes has a surreal quality. One grows accustomed to each day bringing some new bizarreness or outrage. But there are things that I can't grow accustomed to, and that we can't allow ourselves as a nation to grow accustomed to. One of those is the policy of family separation as a means of enforcing the new "zero tolerance" policy for immigrants crossing illegally into the United States.
From this article from National Catholic Reporter today:
"If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you, and that
child will be separated from you as required by law," Attorney General
Jeff Sessions said during a speech to the Association of State Criminal
Investigative Agencies May 7. "If you don't like that," he added, "then
don't smuggle children over our border."
The subject of Sessions' talk was not criminal gangs or human
trafficking. He was talking about mothers and fathers seeking refuge
from unrelenting violence and economic deprivation. He was talking about
jailing parents for doing their duty to protect their children."
"...Making family separation a point of government policy is unacceptable
and immoral. For anyone purporting to hold and support family values it
is abhorrent. On a policy level, it is ineffective: It deters no one
and keeps no one safe.
"....The
United Nations human rights office said June 5 that the policy "is a
serious violation of the rights of the child," and called on U.S.
authorities to adopt noncustodial alternatives. The ACLU has filed a
class-action lawsuit in federal court in San Diego, calling for a halt
to separations and for reunification of families.
As Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin, Texas, chairman of the
U.S. bishops' Committee on Migration, said in a statement June 1,
"Family unity is a cornerstone of our American immigration system and a
foundational element of Catholic teaching. ... Rupturing the bond
between parent and child causes scientifically-proven trauma that often
leads to irreparable emotional scarring."
From Huffington Post today:
"Kirstjen Nielsen, Trump’s secretary of homeland security....and other administration officials shy away from attaching the word “deterrence” to the new policy: Changing immigrant detention policy as a way to deter undocumented people from coming to the U.S. is illegal, federal courts have repeatedly ruled. So now she and other Trump administration officials find themselves struggling to defend a family separation policy whose clear ambition is deterrence."
The bishops in the border states have spoken out in defense of the children who have been ripped from their parents. The UN has called it a human rights abuse. Some Christians have been standing in solidarity with these families all along. Others are rather tardily getting "woke". We can't say "this isn't what America is", because right now this is America. Could this be the tipping point at which a majority of Americans say, "The status quo is unacceptable !"?
We reached the tipping point in 2016. Americans said the status quo was unacceptable and elected someone to change it. As of today, we have one friend in the world, a "special bond" with the guy who runs the world's largest prison camp with its own national flag. When your president is BFF with someone who shoots people trying to leave his country, you shouldn't be surprised if your president decides to shoot people trying to get into your country. Any minute now.
ReplyDelete(Vlad Putin doesn't qualify as a friend. He is only the guy making Trump work out his debts through in-kind contributions. Like breaking up the G-7, a long-time Putin hope. Collusion? 70+ percent of Republicans still don't see it. Or say they don't.)
That's where we are after reaching the tipping point.
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DeleteIn fairness to the president, he also seems friendly with the fellow in the Philippines who engages in extrajudicial murders of suspected drug dealers, and then brags about it.
DeleteI really think we should pray that the prez decides not to run for re-election in 2020.
And I think the Catholic church could be prodded out of its slumber and informed that a huge part of the electorate thinks it's dandy to hate on the damn furriners, to the extent of breaking up families. The bishops aren't silent on this one, but is anyone listening? Does anyone have a plan, or even an idea, of what to do about this toxic political situation in which candidates acquire powerful elected and appointed positions by virtue of violating human rights? The Catholic church is willing to speak up, and appropriately so, about the human rights of unborn babies. How about these born babies on our border?
Amen to that, Jim. Sadly, I think the bishops have little clout with Trump. He doesn't have any Catholics in his admin for one thingthing. And as long as Trump talks the talk about abortion, single-issue Catholic voters will justify keeping him in there because he's "pro-life."
DeleteTrump's apologists must live in an alternative universe. Today he is getting credit for rocking it in Singapore and ending the Korean War (is it my imagination, or did he just throw South Korea under the bus?)
DeleteThen there is this article,incorrectly attributed to Charles Krauthammer, actually written by Mychal Massie. So Trump is a pragmatist, rather than a liberal or conservative. He just sees a problem and sets out to solve it. Isn't that what a lot of dictators do? Just seek to solve what they perceive as a problem, the end justifies the means.
Then there are the "always Trumpers" who accuse the Democrats of hypocrisy, because the liberals claim to be the nice guys, but they are so mean and nasty to poor Mr. Trump and never give him credit for anything. On the contrary, they are quite willing to give him credit for a lot of things. Just none of them good.
Andrew Sullivan, who is not one of my favorites, on how one moves from a state of terror to state terrorism:
ReplyDeletehttps://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/traumatizing-children-is-the-new-weapon-in-trump-arsenal.html
As Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (bless his little heart) says, "It's not our fault if they want to break our laws." Not Kim's faults when defectors get shot, either, since defecting is against the law in North Korea. As Himmler used to say, "Write a law if you think you need one."
Speaking of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (bless his little heart), he had the Justice Department opt out of defending the Affordable Care Act provisions that Texas is attacking. One of which is pre-existant coverage. Who's going to tell those miners who voted for Trump because he said "I love clean coal" that their black lungs are about to become uninsured?
ReplyDeleteWill that be a tipping point? Still doubtful. Somehow Americans elected a black man to be president, and that was the permanent tipping point until all the angry white losers and their voter suppression ploys are swamped by a brown wave. Then there will be a chance for your tipping point.
I am sorry. The USCCB has a disconcerting way of hiding things I know it has so I have trouble finding them. But here is what Cardinal DiNardo said (to prolonged applause) at the start of the bishops' summer meeting in Fort Lauderdale Wednesday:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usccb.org/news/2018/18-098.cfm